Art and Sculpture in the Garden: A Garden Designers Round Table Post

Of course this could be as simple as something which you like the look of,  which is simply placed in the garden context.

But it is at its most potent and therefore most effective when it is used in association with the garden’s route, its spaces and planting.

Art and sculpture on the whole provide something solid in the flummery of garden vegetation. They can therefore act as a thematic accent, a punctuation point and a focal point.

The focal aspect can be used to draw the eye and lead the feet, making it a key part of the the way the garden looks, works and the way which you move around and through it.

Art and sculpture should of themselves invite feeling and interaction.

 It can influence or accent a sense of scale either making you feel like a giant or a minnow.

 

But appropriately chosen and beautifully placed it is beautifully appropriate

 Moving even, emotionally, if it is good enough

Or else it looks like it has landed from out of space!

Sculpture can add a sense of fun and movement to the garden,

arouse - think shapely greek gods and goddesses here.

(We’d not raise your blood pressure by including a pic for that!)

 endear, (but ‘cutesey’ may be the least likely design virtue to endure!)

 energise

make your eyes play games

 memorialise – world events or your own family

and explain.

It could say something political to you. But this may have very limited appeal:

On the whole it is best to avoid over complex thought – this may have meant a lot to someone, but if it doesn’t work independently of that mind it may just look a pretentious mess.

Most of us would simply prefer a shapely marble buttock or breast!

While it is of course a question of personal choice the addition of sculpture is something of a high risk strategy, since here, if you have not previously in your garden, you will reveal your fundamental sense of taste

be it good

bad

or frankly vulgar!

If in doubt a good urn is always a safe choice!

In all quality is vital.

Never add it just for the sake of it.

This garden

fairly clanked with ‘collectibles’. A gun rarely fired makes the most telling shot. Less is truly more!

It is also worth thinking laterally. What is sculpture anyway? The borderline between art, sculpture, ornament, objet and object is indeed fine.

Plants can be sculpture

This collapsed parasol struck us as  sculptural, textural and as the wind ruffled its plumage, almost animal!

And indeed, well made and artistically created but functional garden items:

Seating

a gate

and even a rhubarb forcer, can have a pleasing sculptural presence.

There is a huge range of choice and cost out there. But while on the whole you get what you pay for, something sculptural need not be expensive – the objet trouvee is now a garden classic:

In all it seems to us that the most desirable qualities to look for and use in application are:

simplicity,  restraint,  good taste and good quality

- oh, and appropriately sited!

We don’t ask much!

L and R

Lesley Hegarty and Robert webber

Now why not check out what our fellow knights and ladies of the round table have to say:

Susan Cohan : Miss Rumphius’ Rules : Chatham, NJ

Jocelyn Chilvers : The Art Garden : Denver, CO

Mary Gallagher Gray : Black Walnut Dispatch : Washington, D.C.

Jenny Peterson : J Petersen Garden Design : Austin, TX

Deborah Silver : Dirt Simple : Detroit, MI

Rebecca Sweet : Gossip In The Garden : Los Altos, CA

Pam Penick : Digging : Austin, TX

Category: General